June 20, 1627 Barbary Pirate Attack in Iceland – The Turkish Abductions

In the summer of 1627, pirates from northwest Africa kidnapped people in Grindavik, The Westman Islands, and the East Fjords and sold them into slavery in Barbary. Barbary was a term used by Europeans from the 16th to the 19th centuries to describe the coastal regions of that country, which are now the states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. These abductions are called the “Turkish Abductions” or Tyrkjaránið.

There were two gangs, one from Algeria and the other from Sale (now in Morocco). Around 50 people were killed, and nearly 400 were kidnapped. A ransom was paid for 50 people nine to eighteen years later, most returning to Iceland.

Guðrún Símonardóttir (who later married Hallgrímur Pétursson, after which Hallgrímskirkja church is named), priest Ólafur Egilsson, and Halldór Jónsson, later a lawyer, were among those kidnapped.

The event’s name does not refer to Turkey; at the time, the term “Turks” referred to all Muslims in the Mediterranean region, as the Ottoman Empire controlled most of those areas.

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